


A Personal Question

by RosalindInPants



Category: The Great Library Series - Rachel Caine
Genre: Dirty Jokes, Fluff and Humor, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-13 06:22:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18026414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosalindInPants/pseuds/RosalindInPants
Summary: Set in Ash and Quill, during the construction of the printing press at the Brightwell family's castle. Jess wants to help Thomas, and he needs expert advice on what to do. Fortunately for Jess, he manages to catch Wolfe alone at breakfast. But Wolfe is in a bit of an odd mood.





	A Personal Question

Proper rest was going to take some getting used to. Thanks to the day's work on the printing press, Jess managed to get to sleep well enough on his second night at his family's new castle, but he found himself wide awake with the sun barely a sliver of gold on the horizon. Knowing that he would never get back to sleep, he got up, dressed, and headed downstairs. Thomas had been up early the previous day; maybe he would be in the workshop early again. Maybe Jess could even catch Thomas at breakfast and have some time to talk before they were occupied with their work.

When he entered the dining room, though, Jess found not Thomas, but Scholar Wolfe. Seated at one end of the table with a plate of pastry crumbs and a half-full cup of coffee, a book in one hand and the slightest hint of a smile on his face, Wolfe looked to be in an uncommonly pleasant mood.

Jess almost hated to interrupt whatever reading was making the man so happy. It would be rude not to greet him, though, so he said, "Good morning, sir," as he entered the room and headed for the side table where the servants had left a basket of pastries and a pot of coffee. He braced himself for the inevitable sour response.

But Wolfe only looked up, still smiling, and said, "Brightwell. Yes, I supposed it is a good morning, isn't it?" With that, he returned his attention to his book.

Feeling like he had dodged a bombardment of Greek fire, Jess filled his plate and his cup. He considered taking his breakfast to the workshop, but glancing over at the still-smiling Wolfe, he realized that he had a rare opportunity. Wolfe had warned Jess that Thomas would need help, and Jess felt woefully unprepared to actually provide that help. Here was the chance he needed to find out what he could do for his best friend. He took a seat across from Wolfe, cleared his throat and asked, "Pardon me, sir, but could I ask you a question?"

"It would seem you are capable of doing so." Wolfe put the book down with his reading glasses between the pages as a bookmark and turned his attention to Jess. "Well? What do you want to know?"

With those dark eyes focused on him, Jess found himself more than a little uneasy.  "It's something personal," he said, looking down at his plate, "I'll understand if you don't want to answer."

"You can ask." Wolfe's tone was still mild, but the implication that he might not answer was clear enough.

Maybe it would be better to ask something less provocative.  _This is for Thomas_ , he reminded himself, and raised his eyes to meet Wolfe's piercing gaze. Best to get it all out at once. "What does Captain Santi do for you? To help with, you know, what happened in Rome? I want to know what to do for Thomas."

Jess expected anger, sarcasm, even sadness, and he was ready for those things. What he did not expect was that Wolfe would laugh at him, not with the sort of mocking tone that might precipitate a derisive response, but with what seemed to be genuine amusement.

"Well. That's a rare sight. You are going to have to tell me how you accomplished such a feat, Brightwell."

Jess turned to see Captain Santi coming through the door into the dining room. There was an odd stiffness to his movement as he crossed the room to serve himself from the side table. Maybe he'd been at early morning training exercises. It would be like him to keep himself prepared for the danger they could all sense hanging over them.

Having recovered from his inexplicable fit of laughter, Wolfe finished his coffee and held the cup up for Santi to refill. The two men locked eyes in what appeared to be a brief staring contest before Santi shook his head, smiled, and took the cup. When he brought it back to the table, he also dropped an extra pastry onto Wolfe's plate.

"So," Santi said, pulling out the chair next to Wolfe. "What was that all about?" It almost looked like he grimaced as he sat down. A look that could have been sympathy flashed across Wolfe's face, followed by a sort of smug satisfaction.

"Brightwell just asked me how to polish the old German helmet," Wolfe said with the biggest grin Jess had ever seen on him. It was more than a little terrifying, particularly since Jess hadn't the slightest idea of what he was talking about.

Santi choked on his coffee. "Well," he said after a moment, "It would appear we have completely misunderstood the relationship between those two boys. I do hope I'll be there when Hault finds out. Should be quite a show." He took a slow drink of coffee, then glanced at Wolfe with one eyebrow raised. "He really said that?"

"Not in those precise words, no," Wolfe conceded, stirring his coffee.

Santi looked across the table at Jess. "What did you actually say?"

The temptation to just leave the two of them to what seemed to be a private joke was strong, but with Wolfe apparently determined to dodge the question, Santi seemed the next best option. "I was trying to ask about ways to help Thomas..." he began.

"He asked," Wolfe interrupted, "What _you_ do for _me_."

"What don't I do for you." Santi looked down, shaking his head, but Jess could see that he was smiling.

"What, indeed," Wolfe said. There was a rustling of fabric, a movement of the tablecloth. The two of them had to be holding hands under the table. Wolfe's eyes were on Jess, though, as he said, "Figured out the problem with your question yet, Brightwell?"

 Jess thought while he chewed a bite of too-sweet pastry. Santi had mentioned relationships... Jess blushed as understanding came over him. "Yes, sir. Your relationship with Captain Santi is..." he hesitated, trying to think of how to politely articulate what he was thinking.

"Considerably more intimate than your friendship with Thomas, yes," Wolfe said.

"By which he means we have sex," Santi added, as if Jess needed to be told. "Why, just this morning he-"

There was a thump from under the table, the sound of a boot heel on a shin. The amused smirk remained on Santi's face. " _Nic!_ " Wolfe said sharply. He cleared his throat. "The things Nic does for me may not be things you are willing to do for Thomas, nor would Thomas necessarily want such things from you. I'm afraid this isn't as easy as finding an example and following it."

Jess sighed. It really had been too much to hope that Wolfe would have answers for him, he supposed. He shoved the last bite of pastry into his mouth, swallowed without really tasting it, and picked up his coffee cup. "Thank you for the advice, Scholar, Captain," he said as he got to his feet.

"Jess," Santi said, his tone kinder than before. "Don't underestimate the value of your presence alone. It means a lot to have a friend who cares so much."

"We were never so lucky," Wolfe muttered, looking down at his coffee cup as if the thing had personally offended him.

Jess didn't know what to say to that, so he went over to the side table to top off his coffee to bring with him to the workshop.

"There may be some things you could do," Wolfe said, his voice soft but strained. "Make sure he's eating, sleeping. It's worse without sleep. Touch helps, too. A hand on his shoulder, even. Reminds him you're real. And work. Work is good for all of us, I think."

Jess could hear a faint tremor in the Scholar's voice, and he felt a pang of guilt, useless as the emotion was under the circumstances. He poured a second cup of coffee, for Thomas, and wrapped some food in a napkin to stuff in his pocket. "Thank you, sir. I really appreciate it. I'll take care of him." When he turned to go, he wasn't surprised to see Santi's arm wrapped around Wolfe's shoulders. Leaving the two of them alone, he headed for the workshop in search of Thomas.

**Author's Note:**

> Could this lead to Jess/Thomas? Maybe it could. Will I write Jess/Thomas? I do like the ship, but I don't know that I'll get around to it.
> 
> I was actually looking for some more formal/archaic euphemisms for sex, but when I saw "polishing the old German helmet" on a list, I just had to go with it.


End file.
